Cold Night In December
by DoggoWoof
Summary: Fox had become accustomed to being alone on Christmas, but that doesn't make the night any less painful. How will he cope through it this year, or will there be a change of events? Fox x Wolf


**Authors note:**

I thought I would try my luck with a one-shot. I couldn't get this idea out of my head so I might as well try make it into a story...

* * *

"Well I'll talk to you later! Sorry again for not being able to come." A beep signalled the end of the call.

 _Sigh..._

Placing his communicator on the bedside table, Fox sank back into the comfort of his bed, wrapping himself up. Christmas, he'd never enjoyed this part of the year. Mainly because others were out with their families having fun, and what did he have? All of his family were dead and the only person who he would consider family, Peppy, just denied seeing him for his _actual_ family.

Fox gripped his sheets harder, tears threatening to fall. ' _I can't be like this._ ' Steeling his nerves, he stood up and looked outside the window. The entire city was blanketed in white, with little pedestrians walking down the street. Why would they? They're probably all with their loved ones for Christmas eve. The moon reflected on the snow, causing it to glisten beautifully. He felt he could watch the snow fall for hours, if only it wasn't for the melancholy feel it was giving him.

Turning to his closet, he grabbed his coat and red scarf. Moping around inside wouldn't do anything for him, so he decided to go outside and see if there was anything else he could do to pass the time. He rushed outside quickly grabbing his communicator, suddenly spurred into action.

The cold wind instantly bit him, seeping under his clothes. He tugged on his scarf and wrapped it tighter around him and lifted his hood over his head as he walked onto the street. The urgency of leaving his house left him the moment he went outside, considering if he should go back inside.

' _It's too late now._ ' Fox trudged on in the snow, the only sounds he could hear being the crunch of his footsteps and distant vehicles in the main part of the city. Thoughts of his earlier conversations were slowly drifting back to him.

" _Sorry Fox, I was gonna spend some time with my girlfriend. I'm thinking about proposing to her tomorrow, it's the perfect time! We can hang out later though, if you want."_ Slippy. To think, he managed to get himself a girlfriend who he's actually going to marry. Meanwhile, Fox was still lonely and single, despite being the 'Hero of Corneria'. However it was probably his fault he was in this situation. Fox tried his hardest to not be in public without his team, tonight being one of his exceptions. There were barely any people outside, and it's too dark for them to recognise him anyway.

" _You know I don't care for this kind of stuff. You'll be fine on your own."_ Falco. He always prefers being on his own, which still surprises Fox with how he's stayed with Star Fox. Krystals had hardly been any different. _"I can't hang out with you. I'll be on Sauria with Panther for the rest of the week, too. Talk to you later."_ It seemed that it turned into a ritual for Krystal to go back to Sauria every year on Christmas, this time taking Panther with her. Fox never considered going with her, as he would probably be disturbing her. He wasn't content with her being with Panther too, but there wasn't anything he could do about it.

Then there was Peppy. Of course he would want to spend time with his wife and child. Since he's so busy now with being a General, he barely gets any time to see them. It made Fox wonder, would he be considered family to the other? Signs pointed to yes but the recent events would say otherwise.

There weren't many other people he could talk to. Bill and the others he knew at the academy weren't the best candidates, as he had hardly seen them over the years. Plus, Bill is probably busy with his job, there not being as much time for a break as others, and he would probably be a burden to him.

Fox stopped on his depressive thoughts, observing his surroundings. He had subconsciously walked to the park, standing at the front gate. The park had a completely different feel now than it had done for him in the past. Normally, it was so lively, with others having fun. Now, it looked like a desolate wasteland.

However, the cold ambience of the park had a beauty of it's own. The trees didn't lose their leaves over the winter, and the leaves flowing on the trees with their white coating glistened. The stream by his side had frozen, yet the sound of flowing water could be heard from underneath gently. Fox walked through this winter wonderland, entranced by it. His path took him over a bridge, where the main pond lay, also frozen. The wide expanse of the ice perfectly reflected the moon, almost looking as if it was radiating it's own light.

He knew what was coming next. Everyone did. A giant statue loomed in front of him, illuminated by the lamps in the park. Although snow covered it, he could still see it perfectly well. The statue depicted his legacy, Fox and James standing side by side, with a singular Arwing in the background. Tears threatened to fall from his eyes again, further reminding him of how alone he was. Walking up to the base of the statue, he wiped snow away from the epitaph. He already knew what it said, but he couldn't help himself. "In memory and respect of the McCloud legacy! May they be forever remembered as the Heroes of Lylat!".

He couldn't hold it back. Silent tears streamed down his eyes as he chocked out a sob. Even though he thought nobody would be out at this time, he still wouldn't allow himself to cry openly in public. Suddenly, Fox was hit around the back of his head with a cold object. Snowball. He looked behind him, seeing 2 dark figures shrouded behind the trees running away. However, he was both annoyed and grateful for it. Despite the slight annoyance, it was a knock which brought him back to reality.

Continuing on through the park, the cold had started to effect Fox. His movements were slower, his snout cold sniffling. He realised he was starting to lose motor skills as he fumbled for his communicator to check the time. **6:42. No messages. No missed calls.**

 _Sigh..._

As he was leaving the park a distant sound could be heard of ice breaking, as if someone had fell into the stream. ' _They'll be fine. It's not like it's deep enough for someone to drown..._ ' Normally, he would rush back to try and a person in need, but he just didn't have the energy. It was also still to early to go back to his house, so he decided to continue on his journey.

Many neon signs attracted his attention, but one stood out from the rest. Miyu's. He could tell from looking inside that it was a restaurant, but it was also reminiscent of a bar. ' _Sure, A drink is what I need. I guess I can drown away my sorrows in there..._ ' Walking inside, he could feel the effect of the heat on him instantly as his muscled relaxed. He noticed it wasn't very crowded inside as he made his way to the main bar. Sitting on a stool, he rested his elbow on the bar and his head in his hand as he looked forward, noticing the presence of someone behind the bar.

"Alright, what'll it be?" The lynx behind the bar questioned. He noticed that the colour of her fur seemed strange to him.

"Just give me one of the strongest you got." He brusquely replied. He honestly couldn't think of what he wanted, but he knew he wanted something. A glass slid in front of him filled with a deep brown liquid. Not being one to question, he started drinking it.

Behind him, the restaurants doors swung open, letting another gust of cold air blow through. A figure sat next to Fox at the bar as he was in a world of his own thoughts. "Hey Miyu, whisky and coke." The voice broke Fox out of his trance as it was easily recognisable.

"Wait your damn turn, I'm serving someone else at the moment!" She huffed, quickly getting their order and then bringing it over to him. Fox was scared to look up at the figure next to him, mainly because he had no idea what was going to happen. Many things sprung into mind, he could get attacked, ignored, insulted... The list went on. Slowly, he raised his head to look at who was next to him. He didn't have to look to know who it was, but he should at least acknowledge him.

"Hey." A toothy grin emerged from the lupine next to him.

"Wolf..."

"That's the name." He snickered, looking more intently at Fox. "You okay? You don't look so good."

"You're one to talk." Fox quickly snapped back, looking away from him. He knew he got pardoned for his assistance in the Aparoid invasion, but he still never expected to see him face to face.

"Ouch. You hurt my feelings." Wolf gaze moved down to Fox's drink. "What'cha drinking?"

"It's an experiment. This one wanted something strong, so I decided to make a mixture. Even I can't remember what I put in it now." Miyu cheerily replied.

"Wow, you would do that to poor old Foxy? Look at him, how could you have the heart?" He snickered again.

"Shut up, Wolf. I'm not in the mood for you." Quickly finishing his drink, he slammed the glass down onto the table. "Another!" He could already start to feel the alcohol in his system, warming him inside.

"Not with that attitude boy!" Miyu turned and looked at him condescendingly. Fox quietly growled.

"Miyu, get him a whisky and coke. I don't trust what you will put in the drink." Wolf turned to face her. She didn't move from her position, now turning to face Wolf. "Please..." He grudgingly said.

"That's it!" She cheerily replied, turning around to get him the drink. "Care not to drink it too fast, you already look like shit."

"Shut up." Fox answered as he grabbed the drink from her and drank half of it.

"Miyu, someone over there wants you." Wolf pointed to the left. Miyu nodded, walking over there. "Not really." He quietly said to himself. "Now then... Fox."

"What do you want, Wolf?" Fox looked up at him angrily. He wasn't in the mood for dealing with him, and anger seemed to be a common feeling for whenever he was with Wolf, be it in the air or not.

"Tell me. What's wrong? I've been here for 5 minutes and I can already tell you're not acting normal." He almost seemed, concerned?

"And what would you know? I don't remember us hanging around being best buddies or anything!"

"You don't? So you forgot the Academy days or what?" He replied. He looked slightly hurt. What was going on?

"Yeah, because I'm the exact same as I was 15 years ago, and so are you." Fox huffed in reply. "You don't know what's happened over these years for me. We've both changed, so don't act like you know me!"

"Fox. Calm down. I don't have to know everything about you to know something's wrong. Just tell me, I'm sure you'll feel better if you do." Maybe telling Wolf about how he was feeling wasn't the worst idea. It's not like he would see him again, right? He can't hold anything over him.

"Fine. If you want to know so badly, it's everything!"

"Everything?"

"Why do you think I'm here, sat alone at a bar doing nothing but drinking? You think I do this normally?" He quickly finished his second drink. "This time of year is awful. Everyone else is at home with their families or friends or whatever, and here I am wasting away!"

"So why don't you go find someone to hang out with?" He just wasn't getting it.

"You think I haven't tried that? Everyone's left me already. They don't want to see me. There's a reason I'm alone here!" His huffing increased, alongside his stress. He turned away and silence ensued from his statement.

"Miyu, another 2 please." Wolf looked over to her. She quickly walked to the two with the drinks, leaving them, and then walked back off to talk to the others. Wolf slid the drink over to Fox. "Well... You're not alone."

"I'm not? Last time I checked I was here BECAUSE I'm alone. Who else can I talk to?"

"Well, you're talking to me right now." It suddenly hit Fox with how stupid his statement was.

"That doesn't change anything!" He grabbed his drink and swigged it all.

"Fox, you gotta slow down man. You shouldn't drink so fast."

"What does it matter? Who cares?" He could feel the alcohol affect him quite heavily now, as his words began to slur. "Nobody, that's who..." Looking down at the bar, a single tear fell from his eye. He had less control of his emotions now that he was inebriated.

"How about we get you out of here." Wolf said as he stood up. Fox supposed he should stop, as he reluctantly stood up. Suddenly, he lost balance and tumbled forward into Wolf. "Okay, you really shouldn't have trusted Miyu with that drink." Wolf grabbed Fox's arm and wrapped it over his shoulder to act as a balance for him.

"Hey! Where do you think you're going!" Miyu shouted from behind the bar. Wolf held his free hand up.

"Put it on my tab." He smirked, walking out of the building hearing Miyu's discontent grumblings. As soon as they got outside, the cold hit them again. Fox suddenly started shivering. Badly. It was probably because of the alcohol, Wolf mused. "You okay?" He looked to his left to see Fox.

"Why are you doing this?" Fox asked quietly.

"Doing what?"

"You know what. Talking to me. Walking outside with me. What's your motive?" He turned to face Wolf, looking in his eyes. Sighing, Wolf looked forward and they started walking.

"You wouldn't believe me..." He simply stated.

"Why wouldn't I?"

"You seem to dislike me." Fox couldn't think of a comeback to this. Dislike was a strange way of describing how he felt about Wolf, as it seemed deeper like that. Their were many aspects to their rivalry. The feelings of anger from dogfights, of respect for each other. He couldn't hold Wolf being on the opposite side of the War against him, it was his job. And then there was another feeling, but it was strange. Thinking about when Wolf saved him during the invasion. Twice. He couldn't say he disliked Wolf, because that was just plain wrong.

"Just please. Tell me."

"Fine. You know how Krystal's recently gotten into a relationship with Panther?" Fox nodded in acknowledgement. "Well, she's been talking with me and Leon because of this." This was the first Fox was hearing of it.

"She has?"

"Mind you, it's not like she went out of her way to see us. She just talks to us when Panther is around us. Anyway, they were talking about their trip to Sauria when she started to look concerned. At first she played it off as if nothing was wrong, but after asking her she told me about you. She told me every year you tend to get into a depressed rut, and how she felt she couldn't do anything about it. She didn't ask me, but I thought I'd come visit."

' _So she knew? She knew I was this lonely and she still rejected me?_ ' Fox angrily thought.

"So that's why I'm here. I wasn't expecting you to be this bad to be honest, but I'm glad I came."

"That still doesn't explain everything. How did you find me?"

"Well that's a long story. I went to visit your house earlier, and noticed you weren't there. I walked around for a bit and saw you mindlessly walking around town, so I decided to follow you." Fox paused to look at him with a weird look. "Sure, it seems strange, but so does randomly walking up to you in the streets to stop and talk to you." They continued.

"I saw you walk into the park, and also saw what happened to you. I could tell you were crying stood there, and I was thinking of walking up to you when you got hit by a snowball. I wasn't going to let those jerks go on with that unpunished, so I might have pushed one of them into the stream when they weren't looking." Fox looked at him incredulously. "You weren't going to do anything, so I thought I might as well have."

"You could've hurt them!"

"Don't worry they're fine. Or should be... Anyway, afterwards I saw you walk into the bar and I thought that was the time for me to make my appearance." The two suddenly stopped and Fox looked to his left, noticing that he was home.

"Well that answers one of the questions. How about the other one?"

"The other?"

"Why did you walk me home? Why did you bother?"

"Well, it wasn't on my agenda to be honest. I don't know what Miyu put in your drink but when I saw how drunk you were, I couldn't just leave you. I wouldn't have forgiven myself if you got hurt or even died on the way home, especially when I was looking after you. It's dangerous at this time."

' _Looking after me?_ ' A lot of thoughts were swirling in Fox's head as he was trying to comprehend everything he was told by Wolf. He went out his way to see Fox, to talk to him. The two stood under a street lamp just outside Fox's house. He talked to Fox when he was all alone, despite not being asked to. Fox started to shake again, tears slowly falling from his eyes. He quickly grasped onto Wolf and hugged him tightly, crying into the fabric on his chest.

"Fox?" Wolf was at a loss for words.

Fox continued shaking. ' _Somebody... He... Came to see me. He was concerned about me... Someone actually cares. He cares! Nobody else cared, they all left me... But Wolf, of all people, came._ '

"Are you okay?" Wolf started to get concerned again. Without warning, Fox quickly looked up and kissed Wolf on his lips, holding there. The alcohol was inhibiting all thoughts against doing it. Wolf broke away, giving Fox a confused look. The torrent of tears didn't stop. "Fox? What was that?"

"I... I was so... Alone..." Fox couldn't stop his hiccups as he slurred his speech. "Everyone left me... I was so lonely. But, you... Came to see me. You... actually cared?"

"Of course I did. I'm not that heartless. After Krystal told me, I wanted to cheer you up." Wolf smiled, looking at Fox. "But so far, I'm not sure that's working out too well." Wolf wiped away some of the tears off of Fox's face. "However, I wasn't expecting... This."

Fox quickly looked back up and kissed Wolf again, this time with him kissing back. Fox wasn't sure how long their kiss lasted, but he had to stop to get his breath back. He collapsed into his arms, still shaking. Suddenly, Wolf's voice broke their silence.

"You know, I wasn't planning on acting on my feelings, since that hasn't gotten me anywhere in my life, but sometimes I can't help it..." Wolf looked up into the sky, staring at the moon. "Like when I saved you during the Invasion. I don't know what you did to me, but I couldn't bare to see you die there, which is why I came rushing in."

"But, you said that was because you wanted to be the one who killed me?" Fox wasn't comprehending this. Perhaps it was the alcohol, but he just wasn't getting it.

"Well of course I had to make some excuse up. It would be too weird for your team and mine if I came out of nowhere to save you from death. It was the best thing I could come up with."

"And also like now..." Wolf continued. "If it were anyone else, I probably wouldn't have cared less. But after all we've been through, and after all you've done for this system, I couldn't stand to let you be so depressed. Believe it or not, I still remember our days in the Academy. I... Liked you back then, I guess. But when the War started, I didn't have time to have those feelings." ' _He liked me back then?_ ' Fox thought.

"Why are you telling me all of this?"

"I guess the main thing to say about the war is, I'm sorry. I never got to say that. But during the Aparoid invasion, I started to have these feelings again."

"And now?"

"Do I have to say it?" Wolf looked away, slightly blushing as his ears wilted. Fox thought he looked, cute?

"Wolf..."

"Fine. I love you, Fox." Wolf quickly kissed him on the lips. "But I wasn't expecting you to kiss me first, or at all for that fact." He looked back into Fox's eyes expectantly. Fox couldn't hold his gaze for long, looking down.

"Yeah well, I guess I might like you, maybe, I don't know... I wasn't expecting you to care so much about me..." Wolf punched him in the arm. "Hey! Fine... I guess, I... Love you too..." Fox looked back into his eyes to see Wolf smiling back at him.

"Well, now that we have this sorted out, I should get going." Wolf let go of Fox as he stood there in a daze and turned around. "I'll see you tomorrow, if you want..." He trailed off as he started walking away.

"WAIT!" Fox shouted as he quickly grabbed onto Wolf's sleeve. "Don't leave me..." Fox looked as if he were about to cry again, staring into Wolfs eyes. "I mean... Can you stay here tonight?" He stared into his eyes.

"Okay, I'll stay." Fox's face lit up as he couldn't hold back his smile. The feeling of happiness was new to Fox, and he felt that a hole in his heart had been filled in. "You know, this is the first time I've seen you smile tonight. I'm glad." Wolf smiled.

Fox quickly pulled him into an embrace again. The hug was short lived but afterwards he kissed Wolf again. The snow seemed to have stopped falling around them now, and time felt like it had stopped for them both. They had both never experienced a kiss so passionate in their life, but now they had Wolf wondered why he ever held back on his feelings before.

"I love you, Wolf."

"I love you too."

* * *

 **End note:**

And that's it for my first one-shot. I know the Christmas theme is a bit cliché but oh well. Please tell me how I did because I feel like the interactions may seem weird in places. Also with the fact that I wanted this to be a one shot, there are parts where suddenly loads of feelings are given out and explained and whatnot, as I didn't just want their interaction to be 'Wolf sees Fox in bar Fox loves Wolf instantly after talking with each other for 5 minutes', but I dunno, I'm not experienced at this. Also sorry again for the lack of delay on my main story.


End file.
